Fred Crane, 90; actor who wooed Scarlett in 'Gone With the Wind'
He played Brent Tarleton in the 1939 film. Crane later became an announcer on
L.A. classical music station KFAC.
By Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 23, 2008
Fred Crane, a former longtime Los Angeles classical music radio announcer who
achieved a slice of film immortality when he played one of the handsome
Tarleton twins in the 1939 movie classic "Gone With the Wind," has died. He was
90.
Crane, who had been hospitalized for a few weeks with complications related to
diabetes, died of a blood clot in his lung Thursday in a hospital near Atlanta,
said his wife, Terry.
Crane was said to be the oldest surviving adult male cast member of "Gone With
the Wind," producer David O. Selznick's epic production of the Margaret
Mitchell novel starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh.
"I'm just a small shard in a grand mosaic," he told the Atlanta Journal
Constitution in 2007.
As Brent Tarleton, one of Scarlett O'Hara's young suitors, Crane spoke the
opening lines in the film in a scene on the front porch of Tara with Leigh as
Scarlett and George Reeves as his twin, Stuart.
"What do we care if we were expelled from college, Scarlett?" he says. "The war
is gonna start any day now, so we would have left school anyhow."
After Brent and Stuart express their excitement over the prospect of a fight
with the Yankees, Scarlett replies: "Fiddle-dee-dee. War, war, war. This war
talk's spoiling all the fun at every party this spring. I get so bored I could
scream."
When he was cast in "Gone With the Wind," the 20-year-old Crane hadn't read
Mitchell's bestselling novel and wasn't even looking for a role in the film.
"It was a matter of being in the right place at the right time," Crane later
said.
A New Orleans native, Crane attended Tulane University and Loyola University in
New Orleans and acted in local theater productions.
In 1938, his mother decided that he should give Hollywood a try, and she gave
him $50 and a one-way train ticket.
After arriving in Hollywood, Crane contacted his cousin, former silent film
actress Leatrice Joy, who took him along with her to the Selznick studio, where
her daughter was auditioning for the role of Scarlett's sister Suellen.
Evelyn Keyes wound up playing Suellen, but Crane's Southern accent caught the
attention of the casting director, who called director George Cukor, and
together they took Crane to meet Selznick.
"I read the opening scene right then and there with Vivien Leigh, and I got the
job," Crane told the Memphis Commercial Appeal in 1999. He was put under a
13-week contract for $50 a week, which was "more money than I thought there was
in the world."
Although he played Brent Tarleton in the film, the screen credits mistakenly
list Crane as playing Stuart Tarleton, said Crane's son David.
The film's first scene was remade three times, the first time after the
Tarleton twins' dyed red hair was deemed too curly.
The second time came when the film's Southern technical advisor objected to
Scarlett's low-cut dress in the scene, saying that a girl her age would not be
showing so much "bosom" that early in the day.
Crane also appeared in four other scenes in the movie, including the
smoking-room scene where Rhett Butler (Gable) lectures the men about the
South's poor odds in fighting a war with the North. To which Crane's character
responds, "What difference does that make, sir, to a gentleman?"
In making the film, Crane and Reeves became good friends, and Reeves served as
Crane's best man at his first wedding in 1940. Years after Reeves, who gained
fame as TV's "Superman," died in 1959 from a gunshot wound that was ruled a
suicide, Crane said he believed "someone shot him to death."
Ann Rutherford, who played Scarlett's sister Carreen, told The Times on Friday
that Crane and Reeves "did not look exactly alike, but they were both gorgeous
as young men. They were extremely attractive."
Crane was born in New Orleans on March 22, 1918, and became a part-time
announcer at Los Angeles classical radio station KFAC in 1946. He continued to
act, mostly in television, until the mid-1960s, when he began working full time
at KFAC.
Crane, who also became program director of the AM side of the station in the
'70s in addition to hosting his own shows, was among the station's Old Guard
who were fired in 1987 by the station's new owners. He and the others later won
an age-discrimination suit, said Crane's son.
In 2000, Crane and his fifth wife, Terry, bought an antebellum mansion in
Barnesville, a town south of Atlanta. After making renovations, they turned it
into a bed-and-breakfast, complete with a "Gone With the Wind" museum with
artifacts from the film.
In 2007, primarily due to Crane's medical problems, the couple auctioned off
the home and its memorabilia.
In addition to his wife and his son David, he is survived by children Haydee
Crane, Terry Lynn Smith, Shelley Bruehl and Jason Crane; eight grandchildren;
and one great grandchild.
----- Original Message -----
From: Jeff Potokar
To: Glenn Taranto
Sent: Saturday, July 12, 2008 12:20 AM
Subject: Re: [MOPO] Sorry to report...
i know, glenn..and here we are talking of rhett and scarlett's little
daughter, bonnie.
and i just checked... she will actually be 74 on aug. 5th.
some other interesting facts about cammie king:
Stepdaughter of Dr. Herbert Kalmus, founder of Technicolor
The part of "Bonnie Blue Butler" in Gone with the Wind (1939) was to have
been played by Cammie's older sister Diane; however, by the time the scenes
were to have been filmed, her sister looked too old for the part. Cammie
stepped in to take her place.
jeff
On Jul 12, 2008, at 12:12 AM, Glenn Taranto wrote:
Hard to believe the youngest is 74!
GT
----- Original Message -----
From: Jeff Potokar
To: Glenn Taranto
Cc: [email protected]
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 11:51 PM
Subject: Re: [MOPO] Sorry to report...
sad to read, glenn; time is marching on.
those still with us are:
1. Ann Rutherford (Carreen O'Hara)
2. Olivia de Havilland (Melanie Wilkes)
3. Alicia Rhett- (India Wilkes)
4. Cammie King (Bonnie Blue Butler)--- youngest surviving member at age 74
5. Fred Crane (Stuart Tarleton-- twin to George Reeves' character, Brent
Tarleton)
6. Mickey Kuhn (Beau Wilkes)
7. Mary Anderson (Maybelle Merriwether)
jeff
On Jul 11, 2008, at 9:20 PM, Glenn Taranto wrote:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080712/ap_en_mo/obit_keyes
How many of the cast are still with us?
GT
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